With the rapid rise in e-commerce sales, more and more goods are being delivered to residential and business addresses. As a result, parcel delivery services are now experiencing record delivery volumes. This increased volume has also led to corresponding increases in road traffic, energy use, and labor expenses, in an effort to continue meeting society's demand for delivered goods.
In general, attempts to streamline the parcel delivery process have focused on central distribution facilities. In particular, many parcel delivery services now utilize large delivery hubs that coordinate deliveries from centralized locations. Within a given hub, packages may be sorted and routed for delivery. However, deliveries from the hub to the addressees still require a fleet of delivery vehicles. For example, a package may be loaded onto a delivery truck at a local hub and driven by a delivery driver to the final destination. Once there, the delivery driver may manually carry the package along the final leg of the delivery route from the delivery truck to the drop off location (e.g., the front steps of a house, the foyer of an apartment complex, etc.).
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) present a potential way to partially or fully automate the parcel delivery process, as well as having many other promising uses in the future. For example, a UAV may carry a package to a drop off location instead of a delivery driver carrying the package. While UAV-based parcel delivery appears promising, a number of logistical, technical, and regulatory challenges remain before this becomes a reality. UAVs are also potentially important elements in security, media production, entertainment, agriculture, energy, and many other applications. With all of these UAVs in a shared airspace, it becomes vital to know the exact position of each one.